Both Everetts of Tyler books were reviewed by The Crazy Granny over on The Jeep Diva this week, and Dance came away with 4.5 Stars while Fight received 5 Stars!

Read both reviews here:

The Jeep Diva

Great reviews aside, I haven’t been writing like I’d like on Live For Me– although I am making progress, there is a slight chance the release date may have to be pushed back a bit. We’ll see how Haleigh and Caleb (and Georgia) work out their lives (and if they work them out well together with no gaping plot holes, crappy dialogue, or stupid grammar…) That said, today’s snippet!

She was cleaning up her office when a chill crawled up her spine, making her turn to look out the door and down the hall. Instincts on high alert, she took a deep breath to keep from panicking and searched the corridor for something or someone out of place. Finding nothing, she returned to her office, but the unease didn’t dissipate. Afraid something had happened to Georgia, she fished her phone from her bag.

“Mommy!” Georgie greeted from Caleb’s phone.

“Hi, baby. Are you having fun?”

“We seed a billion animals!”

“A billion?”

“Uh-huh. And we had hot dogs and ice cream!”

At least she could say Caleb was true to his word. “I’m happy you’re having such a good time, baby girl. Can I talk to Dr. E?”

She heard Georgia tell Caleb it was his turn, and braced herself for the sound of his deep voice in her ear. “We’re fine, Mommy,” Caleb said through a laugh when he took the phone from Georgia.

“I wasn’t worried,” she denied, causing his laughter to intensify.

“Yes you were, and that’s okay.”

She sighed. “Having fun, Doc?”

“More than I thought possible. I promise she’s fine, and I won’t let anything happen to her. You don’t have to worry, Angel.”

It was silly that his endearment made her feel better. Ignoring the niggling sensation something was still wrong, she said, “I’m glad you’re enjoying the zoo. I’ll see you both after work.”

Like this:

As you’ve seen here, I tend to only write a review when I liked (or loved) a book, but I *do* appreciate a well thought out, honest review before I purchase a book. One bad review won’t necessarily sway me from reading, but I will invariably choose to read the few one and two star reviews instead of many four and five star reviews before making a purchase. Why? Well, because if there are, say, twelve four star and better reviews and four two star and lower reviews, what were those readers seeing? Was she not in the mood for the genre she chose? (Huge pet peeve–if you didn’t want to read BSDM, or paranormal, or whatnot, WHY did you buy it?!) Was she put off by something in the story that they other reviewers didn’t mind? Was she distracted by typos or editing the others overlooked?

Typically if I like the blurb of a story, I will buy it regardless of the reviews (well, unless there are lots and lots of low scores–usually that is for editing and grammar and not for the story itself), but occasionally I’ll find something that turns me off and in the end saves me money.

I will read almost anything–although I have a tendency to stay under the Romance umbrella– but there are certain things that I just can’t slog through. I abhor first person POV, so unless something is incredibly engaging, I won’t bother (I do find it really funny I am writing in first person right now right, though.) I need at least an HFN ending, although I prefer the hearts and flowers of an HEA, and I really, really don’t like whiny women… I used to be a “must finish this book” type reader, but now I’m finding if I lose interest, I’ll let myself lose interest and move on.

So, that leads me to my question of the post: Do you read reviews before making a purchase? And… (ooh, two-parter!) What turns you off when reading reviews, or blurbs, or, well, books?